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Trump was Still Weighing Tariff Options Last Night; Trump Announces New Tariffs, Upending World Economy; Trump Gambles with New Tariffs on Imported Goods; Democrats Slam Musk after Wisconsin Win; Jubilant Democrats Celebrate Special Election Results. Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired April 02, 2025 - 12:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

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DANA BASH, CNN HOST, INSIDE POLITICS: Today on "Inside Politics" rolling the dice. We're a few hours away from President Trump unveiling sweeping new tariffs that could reshape the global economy and shatter relationships with key U.S. allies. Anxiety is palpable from Washington to Wall Street as the president bets that the economy is going to get better, even though his plan is very mysterious, still.

Plus, a sliver of optimism, Democrats are celebrating a win in Wisconsin, their favorite candidate beat the Conservative Elon Musk, backed candidate by 10 points. The day after question, is it a blip or a real boost for Democrats? And nine Republicans sink Mike Johnson's push to block remote voting after the birth of a child. Why is the self-described pro-family speaker choosing this battle to fight? I'm Dana Bash. Let's go behind the headlines and "Inside Politics".

First up one man's Liberation Day is the rest of the world's bewilderment day. The White House says today will go down as quote, one of the most important days in modern American history. But outside of a select few on Pennsylvania Avenue, no one really knows what to expect from President Trump's tariff announcement, which we do expect this afternoon.

Sources tell CNN that the president was still weighing his options as of last night. CNN's Jeff Zeleny is at the White House. Jeff, what are you hearing this morning or, I should say, at noon Eastern?

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well Dana, one day after the biggest political rebuke that this administration has seen in the way of that Wisconsin outcome that the president injected himself into. The administration is planning to make one of its biggest policy announcements yet. And this is certainly going to test his political standing as well.

Later this afternoon, this announcement is going to be coming in the Rose Garden, and I'm told they are preparing for literally a celebration. Flags are being set up. There's going to be quite the scene with members of the cabinet there as well. The president has branded this Liberation Day, but a leading official in Canada called it termination day.

He said, today is the day that the relationship as both countries have known it effectively comes to an end. So, all of this is coming as really, the president has long talked about this is part of his retribution, sort of theme we've heard throughout the course of his campaigns. He said, America has been mistreated by its allies and adversaries alike. So, he's going to institute reciprocal tariffs. The question is, what kind?

Here are some of the options. Are they going to be across the board tariffs for some 20 percent or so for all countries that would raise revenue for the president's tax agenda, which is also deeply embedded into this? Or are they going to be considering some flat rates for some countries, kind of known as the dirty 15, if you will, the ones that have the biggest trading imbalance.

Or there's also another plan being discussed, a reciprocal tariff plan with each country having individual rates. Well, coming after all of this, as all eyes are on Washington, are retaliatory tariffs that are almost certainly to impact American consumers and businesses as well. But the White House is sounding confident about their plan. This was the press secretary, Karoline Levitt.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAROLINE LEVITT, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: They're not going to be wrong. It is going to work, and the president has a brilliant team of advisers who have been studying these issues for decades, and we are focused on restoring the golden age of America and making America manufacturing superpower.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZELENY: So, the golden age of America and making America manufacturing superpower, it is a common theme Dana, that we all heard, of course, throughout the president's multiple presidential campaigns. The question is, is it realistic in this modern age?

There has been a sentiment of a free trade for so many years here now, but this would be the biggest protectionist agenda. And we do know at this hour, Republican Senators on the Budget Committee are here at the White House, meeting with the administration, including Ron Johnson of Wisconsin.

And we of course, heard his comments last evening here on CNN, strongly questioning the president's plan here. He says the AG sector, the manufacturing sector in his State of Wisconsin, will be injured by this. So, so many eyes on the president's plan this afternoon, Dana.

BASH: Yeah, I mean there -- this is definitely one of those issues that is perhaps more geographically aligned, then party aligned, and others as well.

[12:05:00]

All right, hopefully that truck, there you go. The truck has cleared. You are safe to go back into the White House. Jeff, thank you.

ZELENY: Thanks.

BASH: Thanks for your great report. And I am joined by a terrific group of reporters here who are really going to help break all of this down. CNN's Kayla Tausche, Nia-Malika Henderson of "Bloomberg" and CNN, Hans Nichols of "AXIOS" and "Bloomberg's" Catherine Lucey. Hello, everybody. You are at "Bloomberg". I just want to read for our viewers the headline, one of the headlines on "Bloomberg" today that really does sum it up. Trump tariff plans still in limbo ahead of Rose Garden event.

CATHERINE LUCEY, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, BLOOMBERG NEWS: That's right. I think we all know this. The event is definitely happening, and we know that Trump is very excited about the event. He's been promoting the event and how big this is going to be. But we keep hearing that there's been a lot of debate about all these scenarios that Jeff laid out. How this is going to be structured? And we -- I think we're not going to fully know until the event at this point.

HANS NICHOLS, POLITICAL REPORTER, AXIOS: You can lean into it. Reminds me of a vice-presidential sort of selection process where everyone in town is trying to find this one crucial bit of information, and none of us know it. There's a big difference.

BASH: Except that -- really have much of an impact.

(CROSSTALK)

NICHOLS: It can't crater.

BASH: Anything.

NICHOLS: Right, it can't crater, right? You didn't -- you didn't. You left me enough rope there to not really -

BASH: Here you go, sorry, sorry.

NICHOLS: Yeah, that's the big difference, right? And that's why, I mean, can you imagine being the Federal Reserve watching this? Can you imagine being in any foreign capital from -- you know Johannesburg to London? Everyone is going to be any business -

BASH: Any business leader -

NICHOLS: Any business leader everyone wants to know, and they're probably wondering right now why they pay their lobbyists so much? Because I'm not so sure their lobbyists are telling them what the rate is going to be, but they're certainly not telling me.

NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Yeah, and average consumers, too, right? Who are preparing for these price hikes, whether it's on automobiles, whether it's on avocados at the grocery store, there has been so much uncertainty and tension and stress as Americans were promised that a lot of these issues would be fixed.

They voted for Donald Trump because he had promised to make the economy stronger, when in reality, he's making it much weaker.

KAYLA TAUSCHE, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: But there's been an acknowledgement of that, even behind the scenes among Trump's own advisers, which is the reason why we haven't seen a decision made up until this point. I mean, there have been plans presented to the president, but we know that he likes large, round numbers.

That's what he really hangs his hat on. And the plans that were presented to him, he viewed as either too complicated to administer. That's why I don't believe that we'll see the reciprocal tariffs on every single individual country -

BASH: Even though he really likes talking about reciprocal.

TAUSCHE: He does.

LUCEY: The big board -

TAUSCHE: -- but you can reciprocate against some of the largest trading partners without having to go -- you know to 180 countries in the world. But then when they had proposed some of the smaller tariffs, he said, well, that's too small. He really views this as a go big or go home moment, but already you see some of his advisers trying to soften the edges.

We know the Treasury Secretary told some Republican lawmakers yesterday, this is the cap on tariffs. This is the highest they'll ever be, and they will only be negotiated down from here. So, they're trying to message their way out of this already, before the president has even said what he's going to do?

BASH: Right. But, I mean, you all know this, you cover business, certainly a lot longer than I have, and more focused when you talk about this is the cap, and then it will go down. That's uncertainty. That's not stability, which is what the markets really want. And on that note, you mentioned the word messaging, what we're starting to see. We've heard some of the Democrats messaging leading up to today, but this is what we just got from Hakeem Jeffries.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. HAKEEM JEFFRIES (D-NY): This is not Liberation Day, it's recession day in the United States of America, that's what the Trump tariffs are going to do, crash the economy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Nia?

HENDERSON: Yeah -- you know, listen, and you heard some of that from Cory Booker yesterday. It's not Liberation Day. You're not going to feel liberated.

BASH: We heard a lot of things -

(CROSSTALK) HENDERSON: Yeah, you're not going to feel liberated, if you can, or any of these big trading partners. And as you're making this point about businesses who want to plan, want to have some certainty, want to feel like, what are they going to be paying for the price of goods they're going to then sell to consumers. So yeah, I mean, Donald Trump -- day on here.

LUCEY: Jeffrey's comment tracks with something he's been saying since Trump took office, and hasn't always broken through, but they have been very consistent from the Democrats talking about Trump ran to lower prices. Is he lowering prices? And so, I think you will hear that message a lot more with the tariffs, and as the impact unfolds.

BASH: You mentioned world capitals, I just want to dig a little deeper on that, just who the U.S. trading partners are and what the numbers are that we're talking about? So, the European Union, that's the biggest boy, $976 billion almost a trillion dollars. Then it goes Mexico, China, Canada, Japan, Vietnam, South Korea, India, the UK, Italy and Thailand.

[12:10:00]

And this is on top of, we should say these are the trading partners that we're talking about. And we should also remember that what we're potentially going into is on top of steel and aluminum tariffs and upcoming automobile tariffs that we've already heard about from President Trump.

NICHOLS: Yeah. There's going to be decision in all these capitals. And here's the correction part I said, Johannesburg, everyone knows it's Pretoria. I'm sorry if I blunder there. Look, they're going to have to make a decision on how hard they're going to hit back, if they're going to hit back, and how they'll do it?

Because I think one thing, we all know at this table is that Donald Trump likes to escalate, and he likes to get off the escalation ladder at his point of choosing, not the other sides. And so, this is just going to be a decision, and there won't be a uniform decision, I suspect Mark Carney, who's taking a much more aggressive approach in Canada than some of the -- some of the other trading partners in the U.S., but they're going to have a decision to make.

BASH: Yeah, and let's look at the economy. The point that you made Catherine. And this is a brand-new poll out from Marquette this morning. What will the impact of new tariffs be? I mean, almost 6 in 10 people responding said that they think it will hurt the economy.

LUCEY: Manufacturing companies when they were surveyed in the last month, nearly universally mentioned tariffs in every single conversation, in every single industry. And I remember covering Trump's tariffs during his first term, and the manufacturing industry went into a recession. Jobs started contracting, growth started contracting. That was a very real effect.

So, we've seen this movie in some cases before, and I think that's one of the reasons why it's been sparking fear, because people are remembering the way that it felt before. But on the issue of uncertainty, I also think there's uncertainty on how and when these tariffs actually go into place? Because the White House Press Secretary has said that they would go into effect immediately, which would -- which would tell you that the president is going to try to use emergency powers to do this.

I've heard that sovereign nations, large business trade groups, others, are trying to figure out if they have legal recourse to sue against whatever authority the administration uses, and that could potentially keep some of these tariffs from going into effect. That's also one of the reasons why this is taking so long.

BASH: And continue the uncertainty. Yes, exactly. OK, up next, it has been months of dread for Democrats, but today there is a bit more spring in their step. Should there be? We'll discuss after the break.

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BASH: If Democrats are feeling a bit strange, it's a new feeling today. It may be a flutter of hope. The liberal in the Wisconsin State Supreme Court race crushed the candidate backed by Elon Musk and President Trump. Susan Crawford won by 10 percentage points in a state that Trump carried by a fraction of a percentage point.

Then we move to Florida, where in the race to replace Mike Waltz, the Republican won. To be sure, Democratic sources told me ahead of time they expected that they hoped to lose by a gap that was in the single digits. Instead, the Democrat lost by 14 percentage points. But also, we should remind you that Trump did carry that district by 30 percentage points.

It was the same story in Florida's First Congressional District where Democrats narrowed their gap in a Trump plus 37 District. Now another reason Democrats feel good today is what they saw on the Senate floor. New Jersey Senator Cory Booker, he had many things to say about the first months of the Trump Administration, and he set a record by speaking for 25 straight hours on the Senate floor, giving Democrats some of the fight they've been looking for.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. CORY BOOKER (D-NJ): What will anchor us to our ideals? What will call us to new heights? Lift our heads, lift our hopes. What will call us to rise is each other. When our founders said we must mutually pledge, pledge to each other, our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor, we need that now from all Americans, this is a moral moment. It's not left or right, it's right or wrong. Let's get in good trouble.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: My panel is back. I want to return to the Cory Booker of it all in a minute. But let's just start with those races that we saw yesterday. Nia, this is the way that some top Democrats framed it all about Elon Musk.

HENDERSON: Yeah.

BASH: J.B. Pritzker, the Governor of Illinois, Elon Musk is not good at this. Governor Walz, Wisconsin beat the billionaire, then we have Jasmine Crockett. Well, well, well, I guess Wisconsin agreed on the message for old Elon - off?

HENDERSON: Yeah, there is Jasmine Crockett always away with words. Elon Musk was very much front and center in this race. He was donning a cheesehead giving out million dollar checks to voters, and he had a stake in it, right? He's got business potentially before the Supreme Court there that was also part of this fight. The surprise was how massive this victory was.

[12:20:00]

I mean, this is Wisconsin, where, again, you talk about races there being decided by the thinnest of margins, and here she is coming in with a pretty decisive 10-point victory. Democrats have wanted to make Elon Musk a topic of debate. He is obviously front and center in the Trump Administration. And so here they very much did defeat him. He put lots of money and time in that race, and he lost in the Republican Party lost as well.

TAUSCHE: Yeah. Well, I think that Donald Trump is going to have to make a decision about Elon Musk, just given how much of these races became a referendum on him. I mean, Musk is a special government employee. So technically, if you do this by the book, you have 130 days to work for the government before you have to disclose or divest your financial assets.

So that would take you to late May, which I know a lot of cabinet officials have been joking about. I know of at least one who has a countdown app in their calendar but Elon has said. Elon Musk has said that he would stay as long as he needs to get the job done.

LUCEY: And Trump had supported that too.

BASH: Can we just go back to that detail? You talked to a cabinet official who has a countdown -

TAUSCHE: An aide to a cabinet official yes.

BASH: -- countdown app to when Elon Musk could potentially leave?

TAUSCHE: Yes. But of course, there had always been the question of whether he would follow the parameters around being SGE. And now Trump is going to have to decide whether or not he sees himself out at the end of May, early June, when that term is supposed to run out, or whether he lets him continue on in that role.

And I think that yes, that would put some space between the Trump Administration in the midterms, but you have other races, like the gubernatorial race in Virginia that are coming up sooner. And -

BASH: In Jersey -

TAUSCHE: -- yes. And I was -- I was texting with the Virginia campaign operative, and I was just looking for this text who said, it's not great in a state where upwards of 5 percent of the electorate is comprised of the federal employees, they have long memories and long knives for Elon.

BASH: Well, let's look at a headline from your publication. 20 -- just on that note, 2026 you're talking about 2025 but I'm jumping ahead to the midterms. Looks scary for MAGA without Trump on the ballot. Now, to be sure, for Republicans, it's always scarier without Trump on the ballot.

NICHOLS: Yeah.

BASH: And one of the things that they've been trying to do inside Trump World is more effectively marry MAGA and the Republican Party. The sentiment is already married. But when it comes to elections.

NICHOLS: And juicing turnout and off year -

BASH: That's right.

NICHOLS: -- or midterm election. I mean, look Republicans say, well, it looks entirely different when Trump's on the ballot. The future or the sort of success of the Trump presidency depends on a lot of things, but it looks a lot differently if they lose the House of Representatives.

And so, this is the electorate that we are going to have moving forward. Trump is not going to be on the ballot in 2026. Now we can have our speculation on 2028 and but let's not -- let's not open that up right now. In 2026 he won't be on the ballot.

You're going to have a more educated, highly motivated left of center electorate, which could look a lot like 2018 and that's why the Trump officials and the political organization have like, $500 million they're trying to spend because they want to flex and make sure they hold it on the House, because no one wants subpoena power.

BASH: So, 2018 meaning, just to remind our viewers, because every five minutes in this era -

NICHOLS: Yes.

BASH: -- is like five years. Democrats won the House back in the midterms, which is not unusual, for the midterms to not go well for a president. You mentioned potential, sort of mirror of where we are right now. Potential no two scenarios are ever the same. I just want to use that caveat and get that out there.

2016 Donald Trump won in Kansas, the Fourth Congressional District by 27 percentage points. Then there was a special election in April of 2017 and the Republican won by only six percentage points. And then we know what happened as you mentioned Hans a year later. LUCEY: That's right. I mean, Democrats took the House back in 2018 and that really kicked off a very different back end of that presidential term for Trump. I mean, Democrats were already, I think, somewhat hopeful about being able to take back the House next year, and now they're feeling more bullish.

They see this enthusiasm. They haven't completely figured out how to anchor a message to the enthusiasm. I think that continues to be a project for them, but the enthusiasm is real, and so they're working on that.

BASH: OK, speaking of an anchor and a project. Nia, I want to show our viewers your headline that you wrote this morning, Cory Booker's 25- hour speech was a stunt it worked.

HENDERSON: Yeah, it worked to boost the spirits of Democrats. He went viral online. Lots of folks who have sort of tuned out of politics and tuned out of the Democratic Party were tuned into this and watching what he was saying. Whether they're watching on CNN or tuning in on TikTok, and that's what he wanted to do.

[12:25:00]

There was a part in that speech where he sorts of criticized his own party, criticized himself for saying he didn't always live up to what he should do in the Senate, and he implored his colleagues there to do better. He is part of this effort among Democrats, more generally, to be more engaged online, have more of a presence online.

And in that way, this certainly worked. And we'll see other things this weekend, for instance, are going to be a bunch of rallies around the country, and so they're really trying to spark a kind of resistance and some hope. And I think in that way, it certainly worked.

BASH: Speaking about viral moments and criticizing their own party. Mallory McMorrow, she is somebody who went viral as elected official in local government, state government in Michigan. She was on State of the Union on Sunday and strongly leaned into the notion that she is going to run for the open U.S. Senate seat. This morning, she made it official. Just watch part of her ad.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This moment will challenge us, test us, and if it all feels like too much, that's their plan. I know there's a lot of fear and anger and uncertainty right now about people in power who, frankly, have no business being there. So, you know what? Won't fix it, the same old crap out of Washington.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Democrats came ready to fight back with their little paddles.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you know who will? We will. We need new leaders because the same people in D.C. who got us into this mess are not going to be the ones to get us out of it. (END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: This is one of those times where I'm really feeling lucky to have a show called "Inside Politics", because I cannot wait to cover that race in Michigan. Stand by everybody, because coming up, we are trying to understand what all this tariff talk means. And I'm sure you are when it comes to your wallet. We're going to break it down with Phil Mattingly after a quick break.

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